Physint's Villain Is Literally Described as 'Mads Mikkelsen

Casting calls are usually dry documents full of vague descriptors like 'rugged' or 'authoritative'. Kojima Productions apparently didn't get that memo. A new casting call spotted by MP1st for Physint, codenamed 'Shimmer' during production, describes the project's villain as 'Mads Mikkelsen in Hannibal but with flair', a German-accented antagonist who is slim, quiet, and 'confident in a psychotic way'. Mikkelsen, of course, already appeared in the original Death Stranding, so Kojima clearly has a type.

The same casting call, attached to Mari Ueda, the casting director who worked on Death Stranding 2, is looking to fill a scene on a hijacked bus. Passengers include a mother with a newborn, five teenagers of different ethnicities, and two additional male passengers. The whole setup reads like a direct nod to the 1994 film Speed, which tracks, Kojima has never been shy about wearing his film influences on his sleeve.

Shooting for Shimmer is reportedly set to begin in June, though that timeline doesn't tell us much about when the game itself arrives. Kojima said last year that Physint could take five or six years to develop, and this feels like very early-stage casting work. Charlee Fraser, Don Lee, and Minami Hamabe were previously confirmed as leads. Physint was first announced at a January 2024 State of Play as a 'next-generation action espionage game' developed primarily for PlayStation. That changed on 10 September 2026, when PlayStation confirmed it was stepping away from the project and Xbox took over as Physint's publishing partner.